VENICE, Italy -- Mark Cavendish, the sprint star for Team Columbia-Highroad, tried to open the 2009 Giro d'Italia's first bottle of celebratory champagne on Saturday but fumbled.

Standing on the podium, he picked and pulled at the cork, eventually needing help to pop it. For Cavendish and his squad, the team time trial seemed much easier.

Racing on a course that mostly hugged the shore of a long, narrow island here, Columbia won that time trial, the opener of the 21-stage Giro. The leading riders covered 12.7 miles in 21 minutes, 50 seconds, six seconds faster than the Garmin-Slipstream squad.

Team Astana, with the seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong in his Giro debut, finished third. Astana was 13 seconds back.

"Everything went so right and you can be so, so proud that it worked like that," Cavendish said later, wearing the leader's pink jersey, or the maglia rosa.

He had crossed the finish line first, winning the honor of donning that jersey, which bore the names of the designers Dolce & Gabbana on the collar. Wearing it, he beamed.

Cavendish, who lives in Tuscany, has had brilliant luck this season in Italy. At 23, he also won the Milan-San Remo race in March.

But in the days before this team time trial, Cavendish's remarks -- not his victories -- made news.

When meeting with reporters Friday, Cavendish called Garmin's emphasis on winning the team time trial disrespectful to the Giro. He said the team should concentrate on the whole race.

"Their season starts tomorrow, and I think it's going to end tomorrow night," he said of Garmin. "I mean, come on."

Reminded of his words after winning Saturday, Cavendish blushed. He paused, then apologized.

"I want to take this opportunity to say maybe I went a little too far the other day," he said.

"The riders, they're great," he said of the Garmin squad. "It wasn't fair on them. They are really good guys. What I said was directed toward the team director. What I said was, I think, what a lot of people think."

Bob Stapleton, Team Columbia's owner, said Cavendish's comments were born of his team's feeling underappreciated.

"I think the team felt like, hey, we won 16 time trials last year and Garmin won 12 races all year," Stapleton said. "Sometimes the athletes feel that they don't get the recognition they deserve. There's a heated rivalry growing there, but it's good."

Garmin, its roster filled with time-trial specialists, came into the Giro looking to win the team time trial. But the team fell behind early Saturday and was unable to recover. That left Garmin unable to defend the pink jersey it won at last year's team time trial.

Christian Vande Velde was the first to cross the finish line then, becoming the first American to wear the pink jersey in 20 years. This year, though, the riders left the stage long before it was done, disappointed as they headed for the ferry that would take them back to their hotel.

For Columbia, however, the day started out with a jolt of excitement and ended with one, too. Its riders were the first to go, setting the pace to kick off the 100th anniversary of the Giro. Then came the hard part: waiting.

More than two hours later, the Astana riders rolled down the starting ramp. With Armstrong's black helmet setting him apart from the rest of the squad, they were the 22nd and final team to ride the course.

Initially, Astana looked fast enough to win but slowed as it zipped along the seaside, the miles rolling by.

"I felt all right for an old man," said Armstrong, 37, who is recovering from a broken collarbone. "I think we're pleased with that, considering the amount of preparation we put into it, which was minimal, but as much as we could."

Later, Armstrong said it was good that his team did not have to defend the pink jersey. It would give the riders the opportunity to focus on more important matters, such as helping Levi Leipheimer win.

"We would better conserve our efforts to win for Levi later in the race," he said, calling Astana's third-place finish a win-win situation. Armstrong is 15th in the standings. Leipheimer is 19th.

Cavendish, though, is in first place going into a stage that is his specialty. The 97-mile second stage starts in Jesolo and ends in Trieste -- likely with a sprint.

If Cavendish wins, he promised to open the Champagne bottle a little more quickly.

"You'd figure I'd be good at it by now," he said. "But there was a problem with the bottle. Next time, I'll get it right."

Note:Former world cycling champion Tom Boonen was suspended Saturday by his Quick Step team after testing positive for cocaine for a second time. The Belgian was reportedly tested April 24 by Flanders regional government authorities, 12 days after he won the Paris-Roubaix classic for the third time.